What’s the storyboard artist role?

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The script implies a genre, the director dictates the style, and the storyboard artist translates it to paper.  Sounds easy, but it’s a very sticky business.  The storyboard artist is somehow the silent co-director of the project, never stepping into the director’s role, but always present and ready to contribute.  The storyboard artist lays down the visual blueprint for the scene, suggesting the camera positions for the characters and the location, the introduction of special effects, and the breakdown of shots for action sequences.   A storyboard design is imperative on action sequences requiring multiple angles, complex camera dollies or crane moves.  The director and the camera operators must plan each shot for the cameras, before the shoot day, a process call pre-production.  Usually, the storyboard artist gets called in the pre-production stages to start working on the sketches with the director.  In this process, the DP (Director of photography) might be included, as well as the production designer, who is working on the set or location design.

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What is the right style for a storyboard design?

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Never assume that you have the right style.  Many storyboard artist create their own unique sketching style but that doesn’t mean that it is the right visual approach for the script. For instance, if the script is a suspense thriller, the director and cinematographer might want to use certain angles that create a sense of emptiness, a darker and spotted lighting style, and certain, slow, dolly moves so to enhance the tension or suggest the unpredictable setting in which the characters are situated.   If the script is a drama, some directors prefer to use longer lens and position the camera farer away from the characters to create a shallow depth of field, pressing the focus point right on the talking actors while everything else stays fuzzy and out of focus.  On comedies, some directors like plain open shots that allow the actors to perform freely, forcing the audience to follow their every move.  Depending on the complexity of the lighting style, some director require the storyboard artist to sketch plain, with no shadows at all, while other directors require work on shadows to indicate the source of light and therefore, help the cinematographer understand the mood.

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The relationship of a storyboard artist and the director

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The place of a storyboard artist is based on a careful and meticulous relationship with the director and the production design. The director sets up the terms of engagement according to his vision of the script and the needs of the production team. The director’s visual abilities will play a crucial role when communicating his/her view of the storytelling to the storyboard artist. The artist is subjected to all of these variables but the most important one to consider is the director’s clear vision of the visual narrative needed for the script, his/her sense of editing flow, camera engagement with the characters, the lighting style and transitions between each scene. Each director has a different style and way of looking at the world, so don’t be surprised that in one project you’re dealing with a very technical director who wants to resolve each angle with the latest camera devices, such as steady-cams, cranes, body-cams, etc, while another director is driven by simple camera angle focus on the actor’s work, or a project involving visual FX that require careful planning between live action and 3D compositing.

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What does it take to be a storyboard artist?

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Although the common perception of a storyboard artist is of someone with the ability to sketch out vignettes of characters interacting in a given environment, the craft involves a deeper understanding of cinematic scene blocking, camera movements, angles, and lighting. A storyboard artist must develop a sense of visual narrative, a visual storytelling skill that shapes up the scripted story. In the same way that a comic book artist designs an angle showing what the scene is about, a storyboard artist must do the same and take it to the next level, showing how each angle transcends and builds up the story line accurately.

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